Success Happens From Strategic Planning, Not Luck

Strategic planning is a topic that has been thrown at me a lot this past week. A number of people I have crossed paths with have asked me these same questions: “How do I put a plan together for my life?” OR “Do you think that things just “happen” or do opportunities appear when I have a plan?”

Well, firstly, I do not believe in luck.

I believe that “things happen” when we know exactly what we want and we strategically plan and prepare for it.

I believe that when we have a plan and we think about that plan regularly, our brain’s Reticular Activating system goes to work and opens our conscious minds to the opportunities that have always been right in front of us.

For example… Right now, close your eyes and think about the colour ‘Red.’ It does not matter what shade of red. Just think about it. When you open your eyes, I guarantee that you will see the colour red all around you. Did the colours magically appear while you had your eyes closed? No. They were always there and now that you are thinking about it, you see the colour.

This is the same thing that will happen when you put a dream to paper in the form of a plan. The plan could be for a vacation, a wedding, a party or your life. The plan could be for this year or for the next five years. It does not matter. What matters is that once you are thinking about a strategic goal or a series of goals and you commit that thinking to paper, it will start to become an organized plan, and your unconscious brain will find all the opportunities and situations you need to make it happen.

As a person, you can sit back and watch things happen and then conveniently blame the world for the crappy luck you have or you can make things happen by dreaming, thinking, planning and making it happen. It’s your choice. If you choose the latter, then it all starts with what you are thinking about.